Magnificent production of one of the best ballets of all time

Hérold's La Fille Mal Gardée is a ballet treasure and one of my personal favourites in ballet. The music is beautiful and characterful, the choreography elegant and witty and the ballet itself is immensely charming and joyously entertaining.

It is hard to say which is personal first choice out of the Frederick Ashton-choreographed production, with Lesley Collier as Lise, or this one from Cologne. Because both productions are outstanding in their own way, and about equal in quality, but if to choose it'd be this one but only marginally. One really has to love Ashton's choreography and Collier's Lise, but what this production especially has going for it is its boundless energy, vitality and youthful charm.

Visually, the production looks fantastic, the costumes are simple but elegant, the sets have a real rustic but colourful charm, the lighting is never too bright or dark matching the light-hearted but romantic tone of the ballet's story beautifully and the production values as a whole are brilliantly colourful throughout. It looks every bit as great on DVD, it's very intimately shot, while the picture quality has superb clarity and the sound is clear and beautifully balanced.

While Ashton's choreography is very funny, graceful and suitably challenging, Heinz Spoerli's choreography is even wittier and even more challenging. Not only is it lovely choreography done with such poise and never at odds with the music, but it also has personality and non-stop energy and the storytelling is always clear. It is hard to single out a highlight, but while the clog dance (though not the clog dance that we're familiar with) and chicken scene are rightful highlights of the ballet the choreographic highlights in this production were the adagio Pas De Deuxs complete with some mesmerising lifts and spins, especially the pastoral one on the edge of the wheat field, the harvest dances which combined even some choral singing and had a lovely folk-dance-like touch, Alain's comic variation which is virtuosic in every sense of the word and Madame Simone's comic dance on pointe (a rare case for male dancers, and it is a wonderful sight to behold).

The production is just as outstanding musically. The score is played with so much sprightly energy and ravishing tones and textures by the orchestra, and is also alertly and sympathetically conducted. The music is allowed to breathe and the dancers able to be as precise as possible with the moves while also acting the roles, but the momentum of the drama and comedy never sags, which is important in a ballet like La Fille Mal Gardée.

Last but not least, the dancing is really exceptional with not a weak link. Valentina Kozlova in the role mesmerises with her technique, which is some of the very best of any ballerina I've seen from any production seen recently. Her lines, extensions, turns, leaps and pirouettes are effortlessly graceful with not a single balance issue, and she is certainly no slouch as an actress either. There have been a few ballerinas who concern themselves with getting the steps right and the technique absolutely perfect but come across as cold in their acting as a result, like in a couple of productions of Swan Lake or the Mariinsky production of The Nutcracker from a few years ago. That is not the case with Kozlova, who has the charm and wit of Lise down pat. Chris Jensen is a powerful but also very elegant and dashing Colas, his Pas De Deuxs with Kozlova are superbly done and are among the biggest joys of this production.

Martin Schlapfer and Otto Ris stand out as Alain the village idiot and Lise's mother Madame Simone (traditionally played by a man, very like the character of Carabosse from Sleeping Beauty). Schlapfer manages to achieve the difficult and not make pantomime and farce overdone or tired, he is tremendously funny but one does feel a little empathy for him too. His dancing, especially the remarkable leaps, is impeccable. Ris is not only a gifted actor but also a more than skillful dancer (especially in the clog dance), his comic timing never flags in a role that could come as tiresome if played towards either extreme of overacted or underplayed, and his on pointe work is (pardon the pun) 'on point'.

All in all, a magnificent production of Hérold's masterpiece. 10/10 Bethany Cox

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